H.E. Amb. Amal Mudallali

Her Excellency Amal Mudallali, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow and Head of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations Space Initiative. Ambassador Mudallali is the former Lebanese Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

She is also a Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton University, where she has taught Multilateralism, with a focus on Space Policy. She is the Founder and CEO of Bridges International Group, a political consultancy in Washington DC. She is an international affairs consultant and contributor to leading media outlets in the Arab world, including appearing on Al Arabiya as a guest contributor on international affairs. She also publishes a newsletter called SpaceFlash.

Ambassador Mudallali served from 2018 to 2022 as Permanent Representative of the Republic of Lebanon to the United Nations. She was elected Vice President of the UN General Assembly in 2020 and served as Vice President of the UN First Committee dealing with disarmament and nuclear proliferation. She served on the executive boards of the Peacebuilding Commission and UNICEF and was elected Vice Chair of the Information Committee. She led an initiative on food security, helping needy countries during the global food crisis caused by the Ukraine war. She led an initiative to help with equitable access to Covid 19 vaccines in the developing world. She organized events on space at the UN and championed sustainability of space and co-led negotiations on a global compact for the environment.

Before her UN service, she worked from 2005-2017 in Washington as a consultant on American Affairs to Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon. From 1998-2005, she served as a foreign policy advisor to later Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. She started her career as a journalist in Washington and served as a correspondent for the BBC. She also appeared as a guest contributor on CNN, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera. She published articles in Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Asharq Al-Awsat, Al Riyadh, Annahar, Arab News, and other print outlets.

H.E. Mudallali holds a Ph.D. in political communication from the University of Maryland, an MA in communications from Syracuse University, pursued an MA at the American University of Beirut, and holds a BA from the Lebanese University.

For her contributions to global diplomacy, Dr. Mudallali was awarded the prestigious title of Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor by French President Jacques Chirac.